News

2013-06-28

AFRICA/MOZAMBIQUE – Tension in Mozambique after the recent attacks on transportation lines

Maputo (Agenzia Fides) - Tension in Mozambique increases, after an armed group linked to RENAMO blocked the E1, the main arterial road of the Country.
The E1 connects the south to the center-north of the Country and is the only accessible way in this direction for heavy vehicles. RENAMO also threatened to hit the "Sena line", the railroad that links the province in Tete to the port of Beira in the center. One of the two multinationals exploiting the coal of the coal basin in Tete has therefore announced that it has suspended the production until the situation becomes clearer.
RENAMO (National Resistance in Mozambique) is the former rebellion, which in 1992 had signed a peace agreement with the FRELIMO (Liberation Front of Mozambique), the ruling party, which put an end to a civil war which broke out in 1976 in the aftermath of the independence from Portugal.
Its leader Afonso Dhlakama, who accused FRELIMO of corruption and of wanting to grab all the power, retired in the old military base of his movement in the forest of Gorongosa, in the province of Sofala in central Mozambique surrounding himself with armed militants. On June 19, the leadership of RENAMO threatened an "offensive" against the "logistics system used by those who make Mozambicans suffer ".
In some road accidents and assaults a dozen victims have died. President Armando Guebuza said he was still confident that the Country will overcome this difficult moment, through dialogue. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/06/2013)